APPLYING GPS TO TRAINING SYSTEMS

Abstract

The United States military has long recognized the need to provide realistic training for its personnel. Improving the effectiveness of battle simulations requires accurate scoring, large engagement areas and numerous participants. The Global Positioning System (GPS), with its accurate position, velocity and time information, will significantly enhance the capability of range instrumentation systems to support field training exercises. GPS provides a precise real-time navigation solution that improves weapons simulation accuracy and simplifies participant pairing at all altitudes. GPS is a worldwide, common grid system and, as such, inherently covers large areas with a minimum of instrumentation hardware. Position location is performed with GPS at each participant. Therefore, the number of participants is limited only by the data communication from the control center. This paper discusses the application of GPS to three (3) field training types: (1) Air Combat, (2) Land Armor Engagements, and (3) War at Sea.